


Ohana, Jersey Style

by sian1359



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Child In Danger, Kidnapping, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-29
Updated: 2012-04-29
Packaged: 2017-11-04 13:00:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/394157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sian1359/pseuds/sian1359
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It wasn't often that Kamekona came to them for help, but they owed him. Even if he wasn't also family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ohana, Jersey Style

**Author's Note:**

> Posted late for the 2012 Spring Fling over at the SteveDannoSlash lj comm.
> 
> Prompt by sgflutegirl: Someone is kidnapped, possibly tortured (unless it's Grace). Badassness happens. 
> 
> I don't imagine this was exactly what she was thinking, but it's what I came up with. YMMV on the badassness.

"You know, I'm not sure if I should be terrified or awed at just how good Kamekona is," Danny said with a whistle as he took in the garment bag and suitcase that was laid out on the bed before them as they entered the room.

"Make that terrified," he added in a strangled tone as he twisted to look over Steve's shoulder as he popped the locks on the suitcase first. "Jesus, are those pearl grips?"

Steve met his gaze before returning to stare at the double shoulder holster he'd just revealed, containing twin Colt .45s complete with the pearl inlays on the grips that had shocked and embarrassed Danny. "Didn't see those when he showed me his stash," he admitted before he thought better of it.

He and Danny had found their equilibrium together after Pat Jameson's murder and even after North Korea, but they still weren't quite to where they had been _before,_ nor had the two of them really talked about what had gone one while Steve had been in jail, his escape or while he'd directly been in Wo Fat's hands overseas, thanks to poor, misguided Jenna Kaye.

Like the fact that Steve had gone to Kamekona for help when he'd been on the run, not Danny. Or that he'd been turning to his old CO, Joe White, in the aftermath and months that had followed.

Danny, though, didn't seem to catch Steve's thoughts, too involved in going through the suitcase that contained, in addition to the weapons and clips, ties, undershirts, under _wear_ , cuff links and tie pins, along with any possible accessory he might have thought about, and _shoes_.

"Just one of these cost more than my paycheck," Danny snorted as he held the shoes up.

Steve noticed he wasn't real quick to put them down though. Or that Danny was eyeing them with something akin to wonder and hunger. He was really going to appreciate the suits then, Steve had to think as he in turn unzipped the garment bag and caught a look at the labels: Armani and Corneiliani for the suits, with four John Varvatos shirts to go with the grey and grey pinstripe Italian designs. Just one of the suits probably cost more than Steve's annual property taxes on the house.

"Here," Steve handed over one of the jackets. "You should probably make sure it fits."

Danny took a moment to feel the cloth of the jacket and murmur approvingly about its weight and color for a Hawaiian summer's sun. He then slipped it on and fastened the buttons before shrugging his shoulders to check not just the fit but his range of movement.

Steve had his own thoughts of approval, though he managed to keep them stifled. "There is no way Kamekona got that off the rack," Steve offered instead, allowing his amazement to be taken for Kamekona's eye and ingenuity instead of just how much Steve liked how the jacket looked on Danny. He'd kidded Danny for almost a year about the ties and how overdressed Danny was for the island. While he'd been absolutely correct, not just in comparing how Danny dressed against his own work attire – or Chin's – in truth the complaints had been just as much in self defense as teasing.

Danny looked damn fine in his button-downs and ties, in the dress slacks that hugged his perfect ass, not that he and his ass didn't look good in jeans as well. Looking now at Danny in a thousand dollar designer suit, tailored to fit him perfectly… Steve was almost glad he wouldn't be standing next to Danny during the exchange.

"Should I be concerned that Kamekona knows my sizes this well?" Danny asked with faint alarm while simply holding the suit's pants to his waist to check the fall of the material and the length.

Steve shrugged. "I guess he picked it up when we were getting fitted for Chin's wedding."

"Yeah, but why would he have remembered them?" Danny pointed out. He set the pants down and removed the jacket, then returned to poke through the suitcase, pulling out a wallet and starting to name what he found without waiting for the answer that Steve didn't have.

Steve might have paid his own attention to Danny during the tux fittings, but it hadn't been specific measurements he'd been committing to memory –

" – credit cards, membership cards, a _library_ card. Hey, I do not remember posing for this!" Danny protested, shoving the driver's license Steve's direction.

"Daniel Vicentti," Steve read off the name. "Resident of Hoboken. Is Vicentti –"

"Rico Francis Vicentti is the current Capo of the local crime family in that area of Jersey. Capo means boss," Danny explained even though Steve didn't think he'd given Danny a look.

"Isn't that going to be a problem?" Steve asked.

"It's a common enough name," Danny reassured him. "Rico is currently in jail for racketeering, along with twenty or thirty other members of his crew. These mooks holding Kamekona's friend's sister should recognize the name, but the Five Families are just like here. Everyone is related to somebody else's cousin and no one worries about keeping the lines straight."

"I'd still feel a lot better if I was there as your back-up." Because too distracting or not, it's Steve's _job_ to watch Danny's back, and once the op was actually underway, nothing would distract Steve from making sure his partner stayed safe.

"Sorry, you're just too high profile anymore, babe. Besides, Danny Vicentti don't need any bodyguard," Danny added, his accent thickening until he sounded just like one of the movie good fellas, or Tony Soprano, as if this is the way Danny had spoken for years. For ever.

The expression, the way he held himself, the subtle swagger that Danny always had but now emphasized just that little bit more as he started putting everything back together in their respective holders was disturbing on several levels. Danny Williams was terrifying all his own for how easily he slipped into the skin of Danny Vicentti.

"You have the phone, right?" Steve asked, knowing that Danny did since he'd been there when Chin had explained what he'd done to it before handing it over, but needing Danny's reassurance just the same. Danny couldn't go to the meet wearing a wire, no matter now good the technology had gotten or how small the equipment, because if ever there were people paranoid about law enforcement involvement, it was kidnappers. Even kidnappers who had gone after someone as well connected as Johnny "Mambo" Mahoe by taking his sister, an innocent who had no idea of her brother's involvement with the local criminal element.

Danny just smiled at him, all knowing, but for once not calling Steve on his shit. So once more, Steve had to stifle his objections lest he give the impression that he didn't think Danny could do his job. Do this job.

Danny had immediately said yes when Kamekona had come calling; had taken one look to see she was a thirteen year old girl and had cut off any objections Steve might have raised. Not that Steve hadn't been just as pissed off that gang posturing had spilled into this kind of collateral damage. It's just that Kamekona had suggested that they needed to do more than just arrest the kidnappers. Suggested the need to put the fear of someone who was part of the _real_ criminal element – the Mob – into the kidnappers. Into both sides, actually, since it took two to make a war and this could be the kind of incident that could lead to retaliatory strikes and further assaults whether they got the sister back or not.

On the surface of it, it was a reasonable idea. Steve had suggested using the Kapu for the threat, however, not the Mob. The trouble with that, Chin had so helpfully pointed out, doing so would potentially leave the Kapu on the hook for mediating any future turf wars, which was not a responsibility Steve had any right to assign to them. Nor would it be something he _should_ cede to them; while many of the Kapu were simply adhering to the old ways to establish a sense of order and accountability, there were still instances were Kapu ways conflicted with the law, as well as members who felt they were above the law along with members who were little more than thugs and thieves. Five-0 had no business endorsing a group they'd already had conflicts with.

There had also been the problem, as _Kono_ had so helpfully pointed out, in that granting the Kapu such power, even inadvertently, it would likely put them into conflict with the Yakuza at some future date, and that was definitely a turf war that needed to be avoided.

Leaving only Kamekona's idea and an op that only Danny could pull off. Or leaving Steve to nix the whole thing and instead turn it over to HPD's gang division to let them figure out a way to find the victim and kidnappers while also adverting a gang war.

Even if it hadn't been Kamekona asking, Steve knew his real objection was to Danny's level of involvement; that if he'd been the one with the knowledge and experience to portray a member of the mob, he would have okayed the plan in a heartbeat. As it _had_ been Kamekona, someone Steve owed for his life and his liberty, if helping out someone who Steve would otherwise be arresting on any other given day was the worst of the favors Kamekona wanted from him, he couldn't say no.

More so, Kamekona was ohana, so even if there wasn't any debt, there was obligation. Which is why he'd been surprised, but not really, when Danny hadn't put up even a token fuss about helping one of the bad guys.

Despite all of his protesting to the contrary, Danny had finally gone native. Maybe not in the true island sense yet, but he was even getting there, with his protestations more pro forma than true feelings. His staying behind when Rachel had offered him family and a return to Jersey – _when Rachel had taken Grace away again_ – had been the crossed line certainly in the military sense of the phrase, and Steve still didn't know what to _do_ with that, other than to be so damn grateful for too many selfish reasons.

"Don't tell me you are still brooding about having to stay behind in the van. I didn't think you were that petty."

"I'm not petty, Danny," Steve protested. "I simply might have a few concerns about the safety of my partner, when I'm not right there to watch his back." And, yes, Steve did not need to see the look Danny shot him to know that he was thinking that was rich, coming from him only a couple of months after the fiasco in North Korea. He still had to look, was thrown again when Danny's expression wasn't one of triumph or derision, but instead his face held that smile that made his eyes crinkle, the one that normally only came out when he was talking about Grace or life back in Jersey.

The one that made Steve feel uncomfortable and warmed by at the same time.

"I'm going in armed, well armed, thanks to Kamekona," Danny pointed out, still offering that knee-weakening smile. "I'll have the big guy right there with me, as well as Mambo Mahoe," he added with a shake of his head at the ridiculous nickname. "I have a distress word, that you and Chin will be able to hear from within the truck or the neighboring building or wherever you end up waiting, thanks to that nifty little ap Chin installed on the burn phone that turns it into a mic and recorder. I also have no doubt that Kono will find herself a nice high perch and keep a look out over me with her big ass sniper rifle." He closed the remaining distance between them and put his hand on Steve's forearm.

"It will be fine, babe. _I'll_ be fine. The kidnappers might be interested in provoking a turf war with Mahoe's people but they are not going to go up against the Costa Nostra."

Steve raised his brow but made no move to twist away from Danny's welcome hand. "Cosa Nostra, Danny?" he mocked, using this as an opportunity to distract himself for all of his unsettling thoughts. "Really? Does anyone still call them that? Did anyone _ever_ call them that outside bad novels?"

"Actually, Steven, given how everyone and their brother uses the word mafia to describe their _posse_ , it's coming back into usage," Danny assured him, removing his hand but only so he could use it to punctuate his words. "Use the term Cosa Nostra and no one has the confusion whether the mafia you're referring to is the Sicilians or the Russians."

"What about the mob?" Steve asked, truly interested since before he'd come home to Hawaii, all the 'gangs' he'd been interested in were terrorists, and since his return it's been mainly the Tongs, the Triads and the Yakuza here amongst the local street gangs.

"That's the Irish. Technically the Polish call themselves the mob too, but they're mostly in Philly so they don't really count."

"I imagine they do to those living there."

Danny actually shook his head. "Okay, yeah, I'm sure they do," he then contradicted himself. "But for the most part they stay in their local communities and mainly deal in the drug trade, not venturing into loan-sharking, gambling, racketeering or concerning themselves with expanding their empire into non Polish-American cities. As a whole they are not particularly violent, though of course there are exceptions. To all of it. But they don't have the rep we'd need here, and I can't do a Boston or a Russian accent to save my life."

"Not sure I'd want to hear you with an Irish accent anyway," Steve admitted, flashing back to the Hess brothers. "Though you are the right size for a lepre –"

Instead of a rant, Steve got a shove, hard enough to push him back onto the bed. As soon as he got over his shock he laughed and lunged up, grabbing for Danny to bring him down too, realizing too late that instead of roughhousing he was simply holding Danny. Holding Danny despite the interest his body was taking to their closeness. Then realizing that Danny wasn't fighting to get away. And when Danny shifted enough to take his own weight on his arms, Steve realized his body wasn't the only one interested in what was happening.

Oh.

Steve smiled and gave a tug, hard enough to get across his meaning, but not so much that Danny couldn't resist if he wanted to.

Resisting wasn't what Danny had in mind.

*****

 _"I've got eyes on their car,"_ Kono's voice came over the comm system she, Chin and Steve were wearing. _"No sign of a tail."_

Steve let out a breath and inched his head up over the window sill for a glance around to make sure nothing had changed from the last time he'd done so an hour – okay, twenty minutes ago . Beyond the obvious concerns that came with every ransom exchange, there had been in the back of Steve's mind that maybe this wasn't about territory and humiliation, that maybe the gangbangers that had kidnapped Mahoe's little sister had been doing it just for the money. Gruesome imaginings of the car Danny was riding in with Mahoe, his bodyguard, his driver, and Kamekona getting 'jacked had bled over into the day after a night of bad dreams.

There'd been no way to tail the car themselves, not even with the help of undercover HPD officers and cars. This meeting spot was a long abandoned pineapple plantation and processing plant. No way to hide amongst other cars on the road, especially once Danny's car turned down the three mile turn-off.

For that same reason, he and Chin and Kono had come in the evening before, using a helicopter to drop them off two miles away from these buildings the meet had been set for and had hiked in. They'd spent the last hours of daylight getting the lay of the land, scoping out where they could sleep and where they could hide come the next day, along with setting up contingency plans if the other side also decided to visit early.

The other side had, a few hours ago, doing checks and sweeps of the grounds themselves for any early surprises. The camera that Kono had set for Chin up on the water tower near the entrance had picked up the arrival, so the three of them had scattered back into the overgrown fields while they waited to see what the others were up to. No more than an hour passed before the others returned to their car and bugged out, all save for one, who'd set himself up on one of the catwalks in the cavernous warehouse where the meet was supposed to go down. Since it was his people who had the girl, they had the high ground both figuratively and literally. The money was just the bonus, with the payoff coming from getting Mahoe to back down and come crawling to them.

It had been a surprise to find out that Kamekona had chosen not to tell Mahoe about Five-0's involvement. As far as Mambo Mahoe knew, he'd gone to Kamekona for help with the money and Kamekona, in turn, brought in Danny Vicentti from Jersey. Danny's money – Danny's presence – implied a relationship between Mahoe and certain other people that neither gang could afford to piss off. Sure, it might all go to shit in the future, when someone on either side decided to test that relationship and no one in the Jersey crime family gave the fuck about Mahoe, but as long as that didn't happen today, Steve was okay with it.

 _"I've got a second vehicle in sight,"_ Kono called out to them again. She was now up on the listing water tower herself, to provide farther ranging eyes than the camera, and to offer back up with her sniper rifle. _"Big sedan, three people in the front seat and at least two more in the back. I don't see Sarea, but she could be in the back in the middle. The two passengers in front are the same guys who met Kamekona yesterday morning."_

Five guys, six counting their sniper, versus three as far as the kidnappers knew – technically Kamekona was there as a neutral party, the broker who'd handled the communications between the two gangs, and Danny was the bank. Steve didn't like it, but they'd been playing the long odds from the start and if the shit did hit the fan, he knew Kamekona would step in with Danny, making the real odds five versus six and three, because Mahoe's only concern was going to be his sister, not the guys he'd come to for help. And, really six or three or _twenty_ , either Danny's presence was going to hold off bloodshed or it wasn't. The number of enemies wasn't going to make a huge difference if someone decided Danny was a justified target.

The drawback in wearing a suit so tailor made for Danny was that he wasn't wearing a vest underneath it all. One of the Costa Nostra wouldn't, not in a meet with such low-level wannabes, not without indicating he wasn't someone worth respecting. Danny had promised to head back to the car – which was armored – if shots started flying, the hope being that even if he was determined fair game, he wasn't who they'd be aiming for first. Neither him nor Kamekona.

 _"Yeah, okay, I see a girl,"_ Kono now told them, relief coloring her otherwise unflappable calm . _"She looks enough like the picture we got of Sarea that I'm going to say it's her."_

If it wasn't, Mahoe would be the one who started shooting first. The others had to know that. Hopefully they weren't that stupid.

Steve could hear Danny's car now, thought he could hear the other one too. _Someone's_ engine needed a tune-up. As Chin joined him looking out from the office set in the back of the warehouse, overlooking the rusted and broken remains of a conveyer system, Mahoe's driver pulled the car in through the open roll-up doors and turned the car in a one-eighty before parking. Steve also had a sniper rifle, since Kono would be out of position unless they were sure another crew wasn't going to show up.

Danny and Kamekona were the only ones who got out of the car, Kamekona taking a position midway between his car and the opening. Danny, who wore those damn grey pinstripes like he'd been born to them, moved only as far as the front of the car. He then took off his jacket, folded it and set it on the hood, before sitting his fine ass, and the case full of money, down. Steve had never given much thought to holsters beyond their utility before, but his mouth went dry seeing Danny sitting there so casually, and so casually ready for violence when he tracked the position of the shooter up above him then _promptly ignored him_ , as nothing of concern. Steve was determined to convince Danny that they were not going to give that holster back when the guns got returned. Right after he berated him for being so damn _casual_ about his own safety.

Steve kept his rifle trained on the other's sniper, but so far he wasn't reacting beyond focusing on the car.

 _"Showtime, boss,"_ came Kono's warning, letting them know she no longer had the bead on their targets, but still had their backs against any new arrivals.

In the next few seconds, the second car pulled into the warehouse.

"I've got the sniper," Chin whispered at Steve's shoulder, correctly interpreting that Steve would want to keep eyes on the exchange.

Steve nodded his thanks and shifted his attention as the car stopped just inside the rollups and turned ninety degrees, as if to block Mahoe from being able to get out. From the look and age of it, Steve didn't think this piece of shit car was armored, and figured the only way it wouldn't get t-boned, if necessary, was if Sarea was still inside it.

That thought, in turn, had him wondering if they'd filled it with explosives, but these guys didn't look the type to commit suicide in the course of taking down their enemy. They were kids, none of them likely over twenty-five. A group of young turks who'd decided, most likely, that they could handle Mahoe's territory better.

The two front seat passengers exited the car, looking from Danny to Kamekona, then back at the car they'd come in, expressions twisting in confusion and anger.

"Who da hell is _haole_?" one of them asked as he thrust his chin Danny's direction. "We said no cops."

"I'm the bank," Danny said, his tone frozen, his eyes hard, and his accent as thick as the ones heard on Jersey Shore but backed by a hell of a lot more intelligence than those television meat and airheads. "I'm here to look after my investment."

That brought a third man out from the car. He looked a little older than the first two, meaner, and had his own intelligence stamped across his face. The man behind all this, Steve guessed.

"My guys will need to pat you down," he told Danny.

The smile Danny gave the three held only sharp, white teeth as he effortlessly stood up from sitting on the hood. "They touch my guns, or anything else they shouldn't be touching, and I'll put them down," he promised in return.

Chin and Kono both chuckled in Steve's ear, but he was too turned on – and holding his breath in worry – to so convey his own admiration of Danny's style.

The leader gave a short, sharp nod of acknowledgement and gestured to his men. He had to gesture again and bark a name to get them to move. Score one for Danny on the intimidation.

The pat down turned out to be pretty cursory, though they would have found a vest or an obvious wire. One of them asked for Danny's wallet instead of groping for it, which earned the kid his own, personal shark grin, though Danny turned it over with no hesitation. While he brought the wallet back to his leader, the second thug moved over to Kamekona and proceeded to do a more thorough pat down, pulling and checking the gun that Kamekona had put in a pocket of his jacket, but then handing it back.

So far, so good. They might be young and ambitious, but they did seem to know the basic rules about respecting the neutral parties.

"Do I know you?" the leader asked as he tossed Danny back his wallet.

"Do you know the Jersey Crew?" Danny countered.

Steve had never seen native Hawaiians blanch quite so extensively, not even the two Kapu guys he and Danny had called Kawiki on last year.

"We don't want any trouble with the Five Families," one of the thugs bleated. The look he flashed on his leader held so much fear Steve wondered if he was going to piss himself.

"This is a local matter," the leader choked out in turn. "This don't concern you."

"I said I was the bank, not an arbitrator. I'm just here for the girl. The rest of you want to have a shootout, wait until Sarea and I, and the broker," he added with a nod to Kamekona, "are out of the line of fire."

"Let me see the money," the man in charge ordered, raising his gun Danny's direction as a show of bravado. That got the sniper aiming at Danny too. And Steve aiming at the kidnapper.

Danny looked bored, not remotely impressed or the least bit intimidated. He took a step backward and then resumed his seated position on the car hood behind him.

"Kono," Steve whispered into his mic –

 _"I'm on my way, boss,"_ she assured him almost before he finished getting her name out. _"As is HPD. I figured if anyone was planning a double-cross, I'd already be seeing more guys showing up. I'll be there in my new position in less than two. HPD should be on site in about seven."_

Two minutes implied she'd already come down from the tower without waiting for Steve's call, but he was okay with that. The sooner she got to the barrels piled along the side wall to the roll-up doors, the more comfortable Steve would feel with the gun and people imbalance. They'd arranged the barrels last night without making it appear as if they'd been messed with, but now Kono could climb atop them and position herself next to one of the previously shot-out windows that would give her clear view of the meeting area, and from there she, Steve, and Chin would have the participants in a cross fire.

Danny didn't know the exact plan, didn't know where his team was set up, but Steve was confident that Danny knew them well enough to have made intelligent guesses and be making his own plans accordingly. Five-0 wasn't quite like working with Navy SEAL teams, but Steve felt just as confident with _this_ team as he would in an op with those from his former life.

"I'm heading down," he told Chin, exchanging his rifle for Chin's shotgun and leaving the cousins to hold the high ground while he got in position closer to the action and Danny. He'd done this several times during the day already, making sure he knew his footing and that there weren't any squeaking points or debris to kick or trip over. The only light brightening this nearly mile-long warehouse was from the sun shining through the opening at the roll up doors and from a few other windows than Kono's that had been shot out or had lost their paper coverings.

"When I see the girl," Danny was saying to the kidnappers, making no move toward the briefcase at his feet and leveling a look on the thug who'd started toward it himself. The look stopped the kid in his tracks and once again threatened to distract Steve with totally inappropriate thoughts.

For a long heartbeat, Steve was the only one moving, light-footing it down the stairs until he reached the lowest landing and vaulted over the rail to drop directly down to the warehouse floor and the cover he'd already picked out. "Bring out the girl," the lead kidnapper finally agreed as Steve crouched down behind the start of a rusted conveyor system that snaked away from the office area and across almost the entire distance to the cars.

Steve paused when Sarea was tugged out by the remaining kidnapper exiting the car. She looked terrified, but otherwise unharmed. Looked confused, too, staring first between Danny and Kamekona, before giving a soft cry when her brother and his bodyguard also left their car. She was drawn back, hard enough that this time her cry was of pain, and that brought guns out from everyone, Mahoe first, then the rest of the kidnappers. With Danny still there in the middle. And still giving the impression that he was ignoring or was at least unimpressed with all the posturing.

"Obviously neither of you hotheads need my money, if you're just going to shoot each other," he chastised them. Stalling also, because the one part of the plan Danny did know about was HPD moving in when the exchange had taken place, and he would have figured out how far back the patrol cars would have had to be in order not to be observed by the rival gangs as they'd arrived at the plantation.

"Oh, I'll be taking the money," the lead kidnapper growled and gestured toward Danny with his gun. "Open and slide the case our direction. I'm not going to let the girl go until I know it's really in there. No matter who you say you are."

Danny nodded and leaned over to flip the locks, then flipped the case onto its side so the top popped open. When he straightened back up, he crossed his arms over his chest which, incidentally, put both of his own guns in reach with little effort, then shoved the case with his foot into the no man's land between both sides.

 _"I've got the guy holding Sarea painted,"_ Kono announced as several heads craned to see the two hundred thousand dollars inside, comprised of twenty dollar bills.

Counterfeit twenties, but they were damn good fakes, borrowed legitimately from HPD's evidence locker this time.

Steve dismissed the momentary flash of guilt he felt as she reminded him the mission was the girl, not Danny.

 _"I've still got position on the sniper,"_ Chin confirmed his own target. By know Chin would have also left the office and had taken position on the stairs, ready to fire or move farther down as necessary.

That still left too many guns aimed Danny's direction but Steve figured the lead kidnapper and Mahoe would target each other first if things went bad, the same for the rest in taking out their counterparts rather than someone connected to one of the Five Families.

"Peko?"

The thug who'd identified Danny's affiliation gave a stiff nod at the kidnapper's call and closed the distance to the case, hesitating every few seconds to look toward Danny instead of the money. Danny did nothing to stop him, though, made no more demands, and even Steve was surprised by that.

"Ah, Toma, it's… there is something else here with the money," Peko stuttered when he reached the case.

The lead kidnapper's – Toma's – head snapped first toward Mahoe, then back to Danny. "What have you done?"

Danny grinned and twisted his left hand palm up before opening his fingers. Steve recognized the device he was holding very well, though never before in his partner's hand. It was an electronic detonator for C-4 and definitely not part of the plan he, Danny and Kamekona had come up with. Given the grief Danny had given him when Steve had previously used a little C-4, Steve wasn't sure if he was feeling pissed or proud over Danny's improvisation.

"Just a little insurance," Danny told Toma, his shark grin once more in evidence. "Anyone goes for the money before I'm ready and it's gone, thanks to a small clump of C-4, just enough to destroy the briefcase, but nothing more. If everyone plays it cool, then the girl, the broker and I drive out of here, and at some point I'll be out of range and the money will be yours."

'Hey –"Mahoe began protesting at the same time Toma said: "How do I know I can trust you?"

Danny gave both gang leaders a glance that froze any further words in their throats. "You," he said, pointing the hand holding the trigger device at Mahoe, "contracted with me to save your sister, not your own hide. And you," he turned his attention back to Toma, "have no choice. Anyone so much as sneezes in my direction – or the girl's – and I'll destroy the money. And trust me, I'm going to be quicker than any of you, including your sniper up on the catwalk. Same thing if you try to stop the car or _my_ driver," Danny added with a nod to Kamekona, who began moving back to Mahoe's car with his own gesture for the current driver to get out.

 _"Shit,"_ Kono couldn't help exclaiming. _"I knew Danny had balls, but they're obviously made of fucking steel."_

Steve's own balls were conflicted between trying to crawl up into his body out of fear for Danny, and dropping in preparation to shoot his load over how turned Danny's confidence made him.

"How do we know the money is really in there?" Peko's partner suddenly asked. "He could be bluffing, could have just put a few bills on the top of stacks of newspaper."

The look Danny turned on the as yet unnamed thug was one of amusement even as Steve swallowed his own groan; he'd really been hoping the money wasn't the point of this or that no one would be brave enough to accuse a member of the Sicilian mafia of being a cheat.

"Pick a stack," Danny told the thug as he sauntered over to Peko and the briefcase.

"Nine," Toma said at the same time the other guy said "the fourth one."

They all watched as Danny knelt down and grabbed two banded stacks, flinging one toward the doubter and the other toward Toma. What happened next was not part of the plan, hadn't even been considered, though Steve would kick himself afterward for that. Assuming his people lived long enough for him to apologize for the lapse.

Rather predictably, most eyes turned to watch the money being tossed, and the two on the receiving end both moved their guns as well as their eyes from position in their quest to catch the stacks. Mahoe, however, apparently saw only the opportunity for a little payback. He fired, getting off two shots, the first at Toma, then at the man holding his sister, before others also started shooting in response.

Steve started to bring up Chin's shotgun, but every target had a friendly too close for the spread. He set it on the nearby conveyor belt instead and shifted his crouch into a runner's starting position then propelled himself toward Mahoe, noting at the same time that Danny was charging toward Sarea.

Danny reached Sarea first, the both of them then falling with Danny twisting to take the impact before rolling her under him. Steve had no chance to see whether either of them were hit before he had his own impact against Mahoe. Chivalry and protection were the last things on his mind as the two of them went down, nor did Steve feel any remorse when he bounced Mahoe's head off the concrete floor. Twice.

Mahoe's bodyguard needed to be Steve's next target, but even as he pushed himself up from Mahoe's unmoving body and cleared his service weapon, the bodyguard was crumpling to the ground from one of the sniper's bullets. Which sniper, Steve wasn't sure, and before he could try to pinpoint and identify which rifle by the sounds, someone – two someone's – started spraying the entire area indiscriminately with submachine guns. The drivers, no doubt, since he'd not observed any of the others carrying them.

Steve rolled next to the car and began to inch his way to the opened back door Mahoe had come from, hoping to get an angle on the driver as well as getting himself a little cover from the kidnappers' bullets. If he could also get an idea of where his team was, of _how_ his team was doing –

 _"Scratch another,"_ Kono's voice suddenly filled his head as one of the two automatics was silenced and Steve could finally make out the voices in his comms again.

Not just voices – Chin's and Kono's – but sirens too.

Then the second submachine gun sputtered out, it's noise and it's shooter overwhelmed by the boom of Chin's shotgun. Only as Steve twisted, it wasn't Chin wielding it, but Kamekona, standing in the shadows by the conveyer belt like a giant, vengeful Buddha, covering a quaking Peko. He was the only gang member still ambulatory, the others moving only in the curls and rocking as they tried to deal with their own wounds. Peko was crouched down by the money case, both hands held protectively over his head and both empty, his gun lying far enough out of reach he must have flung it away when he'd dropped and cowered.

"Danno!" Steve yelled out in the abrupt silence, duck-walking from the car toward Peko just in case they'd missed someone.

"Yeah, we're good!" Danny yelled back from somewhere in the vicinity of the second car.

"Chin, Kono?" Steve called out next, softer since they had the comms that Danny did not.

 _"All clear,"_ Chin told him, along with Kono's _"I'm good. HPD is here,"_ before directing her next comments to the officer in charge.

 _"All targets down,"_ Chin concluded.

Steve took a deep breath in relief. Down didn't mean dead – which had never been their intentions anyway – and it also meant someone could still be a threat, but he had Chin and Kamekona right there to keep an eye on them while he dealt with the rest. Only as he started to rise to his feet, he discovered he'd taken fire when he shifted his weight and a bright flair of pain nearly sent him down again.

Damn.

Fortunately it was a through and through, little more than a graze in the outer meat of his thigh, but now he was aware of it and his adrenalin was fading with the end of the conflict. He could also feel the few scrapes and bruises he gained during the rough and tumble with Mahoe, again not really a problem, but it certainly reminded him he was not a SEAL anymore, was no where near his fighting trim. He was not just getting soft, but old.

Still, if this was the worst that any of the good guys had received…

With Kono leading them in, HPD quickly stormed the warehouse. They took over the task of immobilizing or treating the most immediate injuries as needed. Chin took the shotgun back from Kamekona and made sure no once mistook their friend for one of the gang members, while Steve limped over to Peko and pulled the cowering man up to his feet. One of the patrolmen quickly took him off of Steve's hands while another indicated Steve should return to the car and get off his leg. Steve thought about protesting, but it wasn't like there was much more he could do anyway, and this way his team wouldn't be ask likely to bitch at him. He took a seat as Danny had when this had started, on the hood of the armored Mercedes.

As he watched competent people do their jobs, he couldn't help but think of other firefights, and how he'd never had to stick around to see the aftermath, not until he'd come back to Hawaii. Now it was all aftermaths; not just about strangers but his own – about both his families.

Such as how Kono immediately moved to talk to Sarea, taking the girl under her wing instead of leaving it to Danny. How the team had begun running interference between Danny and victims that were kids. Not because Danny wasn't good with them. He was great with them, was much better than any of the rest of them in fact, but although dealing with kids had cut Danny up from day one, now it was ten times worse after that fucking mess with Danny's old training officer kidnapping Grace.

Or how Chin still didn't like working with most of the veteran members of HPD and now neither did Kono, who was much too young to be as jaded as the rest of them.

And how Steve could count the number of people he trusted on one hand and still have fingers left over. How Catherine was the only Navy one, and how Joe wasn't.

"Any landing you can walk away from, babe."

Steve cocked his head and watched as Danny hitched up next to him, sitting close enough that their legs and arms touched in all the places they could, something they'd actually done from pretty early on, but now Steve didn't have to pretend it wasn't something that warmed him clear to his soul. "Do I have to remind you once again that I'm Navy, Danny, not Air Force?" The joke was old now, mostly retired, but still it was familiar and provided its own warm comfort.

"I know for a fact that the Navy has planes and shit," Danny scoffed and nudged against Steve's shoulder. "One of Rachel's favorite movies was Top Gun, though I think she was really just watching the volleyball scene over and over, and I was speaking metaphorically, anyway. Sarea is okay. Maybe a few of the gangbangers didn't quite come through intact, but we did and –"

"Actually, I was shot," Steve interrupted with a gesture to his leg and the middling stain of blood soaking his pants. A couple of rags – clean, fortunately – that he'd had in his pockets for working on the Mercury had worked enough as a temporary field dressing that Steve didn't think he was bleeding any longer, but he supposed he should have it looked over before he called it a day. At least get it properly bandaged.

"Was it my fault?" Danny asked, the words light but the tone weighted with concern that just added another layer of ease to how Steve was feeling sitting here next to his partner.  
  
He shifted so Danny could get a look, knowing that Danny wouldn't necessarily believe him when he shrugged it off, but also knowing that they'd done this often enough – had had much worse – that they no longer sweated the little stuff. Once they convinced themselves it was nothing more than a flesh wound.

"Wasn't your bullet, and you didn't know Mahoe was going to decide his reputation was more important then his sister, so no, no apology necessary," Steve assured him.

Danny pulled back and gave his leg a quick pat above the bullet hole. "I'm still sorry Mahoe turned out to be an asshole."

"It was still a pretty bitchin plan," Kono crowed as she came up to them, Chin and Kamekona not far behind her. "Duke's got everything under control and says were just in their way now," she added, twirling a set a keys in around a finger. "He asked if we'd mind driving the situation van back. Assuming no one needs to ride back in an ambulance?"

Steve and Danny both shook their heads. Not this time, though Steve was fairly certain there was a bed in his near future. With Danny sharing it, if he had anything to say. Wearing nothing but a dress shirt and that shoulder holster.

"Shotgun," Kamekona declared.

 – finis –


End file.
